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Keys to History

This dress was worn by Mrs. Ogilvie at the ball given in honour of the Prince of Wales after the inauguration of the Victoria Bridge in 1860. A number of members of Montreal's industrial middle class were in attendance.

Mr. Ogilvie was one of those who contributed to the growth of Montreal in the second half of the 19th century. In 1854, he founded the company of A. W. Ogilvie & Co., a consortium of millers and grain merchants that became one of the country's most enterprising flour-milling operations. Mr. Ogilvie was also an eminent member of the Scottish community, which played such a major role in the city's business activities. Indeed the fabric of this dress, a variation on the tartan of the Ogilvie clan, attests to the Ogilvie family's Scottish roots.